Muslims demand no scrutiny at US border upon return from terrorist conference featuring speakers barred from entering the U.S. - 12/29/05

Muslim group asks U.S. judge to ban border searches ahead of Toronto conference

CAROLYN THOMPSONThu Dec 15, 6:06 PM ET

(AP) - A group of Muslim-Americans asked a federal judge Thursday to allow them to travel to a religious conference in Toronto later this month without being fingerprinted, photographed and held for hours at the border, like they were on the way home from last year's gathering.

In a case that weighs the government's anti-terrorism efforts against the rights of its citizens, the New York Civil Liberties Union argued on the group's behalf for a court order prohibiting border agents from stopping and searching Muslim-Americans based solely on their attendance at the annual Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference in Toronto on Dec. 23-29.

Homeland Security officials acknowledged subjecting those who attended last year's conference to lengthy security checks upon their return to the United States, but said they had reason to believe that people associated with terrorism planned to attend the conference or others like it.

NYCLU lawyer Christopher Dunn accused the government of trampling the plaintiffs' right to practise religion in the name of homeland security.

"We fully respect the government's concerns about terrorism. That does not mean, however, that the constitution disappears at the border," Dunn said.

A lawyer for the government said that while the stops may have taken too long, border agents did what was necessary to protect the country in light of credible intelligence.

"The concern was not that they went to a religious conference. The concern was that individuals, money, documents or weapons were going to get smuggled across the border," said Anthony Coppolino, who argued against the group's request.

The five plaintiffs, all New York residents, are among at least three dozen Muslim-American men and women who were corralled for as long as 6 1/2 hours at two western New York border crossings while trying to re-enter the United States by car. They said they were made to surrender credit cards, cellphones and other belongings and were frisked, questioned, fingerprinted and photographed without explanation.

The five - an orthodontist and her college-student son, a teaching assistant, a graduate student and a hotel manager - are suing the Department of Homeland Security to have any personal information collected during the searches destroyed and for assurances that they can return from future conferences without being subjected to similar interrogations.

"It's not saying they can't be treated like everyone else," Dunn said. "It's saying they can't be singled out."

Dr. Sawsan Tabbaa called the experience at the border the most humiliating of her life.

"This was something I would never expect, that I would be in a back room with my photograph being taken, treated like a suspect," she said, "But of what? What was my sin, I didn't know."

While Tabbaa, an orthodontics instructor at the University at Buffalo, said the experience had made her think twice about going to this year's conference, her 19-year-old son had no reservations.

"I just hope I won't be treated as a criminal again," Hassan Shibly said.

Coppolino said policy changes would subject fewer people to fingerprinting in the future and help to prevent the lengthy backups encountered last year. He said a staffing shortage at the border, the overnight crossing of a large number of people at once and added checks due to the conference-related intelligence had combined to create the delays.

He would not say whether authorities had terrorist concerns about this year's gathering.

Skretny indicated he would rule on the group's request before the conference start.

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"...I steal my articles from disgruntled, Middle-eastern/Canadian Exchange students for my gratuitous pleasure and get paid for reposting it in mainstream press articles... *Hahaha My name is Eric Margoulis!!*

Oh and you forgot to add.... 'I LIKE TO CHOP WESTERN CHRISTIAN-JEWISH INFIDELS HEADS OFF!!!' ..."

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